Poverty is greater across every age group in London than anywhere else in the country, with the recession having wiped out advances made during previous years, according to researchers.

They say that only now are the full effects of the crisis being felt in the capital, driving up unemployment to levels not seen for two decades.

A quarter of all those aged 16-24 are unemployed in inner London, the highest rate since the early 1990s, and considerably higher than the 19 per cent of young people unemployed in the rest of England.